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I've noticed mostly that experienced top bar folks refer to front and back of their hives. I was planning on opening an entrance on the side. What problems might this cause that i'm not thinking about?

Actually from what I've been reading an entrance on one "end" of the side of a top bar hive is a good location compared to the front for a number of reasons. One of them has to do w/ wind blowing into and down the length of the hive. (here in West Texas wind is a big issue which is why I remember that part) Also, there is a site that has pictures of hives made by Les Crowder in New Mexico where they say that he made hives w/ both types of entrances and the bees preferred the side entrance. So, I suspect that it's a good choice.
Granted my info is based solely on research to date - the other folks who answer questions here regularaly probably will offer more info.
Best,
Jean

Hi Jim
Actually a good question. not sure if anyone has actually agreed on what is the front and what is the back.
When I have used the terms front and back, I have been referring to the direction from the entrance. So if I am talking about the back of the hive, even in a hive with a side entrance, I am talking about the bar furthest from the entrance.
Not sure if everyone agrees with this. But since the hives are basically longitudinal, it doesn't mean much to refer to the other dimension.

The bees prefer a south facing entrance, and they prefer combs that face east towards the rising sun (axis roughly north-south). The "ideal" entrance would be at the front of the hive on the side, like the calkenyan hive, but that's a design issue and harder to do without some carpentry experience. I put mine on the front end the bees do just fine, bees will build whereever they can, but they do prefer south entrances, and build comb with the porch facing the sun (that's a housel position thing which has to do with the Y placement relationship with the facing to the sun).